Stars
by Vampirycent
Summary: Childhood dreams are important, whether they come true or not. A certain fiveyearold boy has a dream, and he will go to any lengths to reach it. R&R. Oneshot. Pure fluff.


**A/N** : I wrote this for someone to make them feel better… They know who they are :-) I hope you like it!

**Warning** : Fluff. That is the only warning I need to give you.

**Disclaimer** : I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters.

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A small head peeked mischievously round the door frame to check that the room was empty before the boy tried to sneak past. It was well after midnight and he knew he was supposed to be asleep now… But he just wanted to see the stars. It was some kind of childhood fantasy for him, he wanted to see the stars before they all disappeared again like they did every day. He didn't know where they went at roughly seven o clock each morning, five o clock in the summer, but he knew that they'd come back. They always did.

Tiptoeing his way past the open door, he stopped still, back against the wall at the other side of the gap, waiting to find out if he'd been heard, or even worse… _Seen_. Being out of bed after eight o clock in the evening was a bad thing to do, even though he didn't really know why. He'd always listened to the older children telling stories to the young ones that a monster came out twice in the night and ate any children that were found out of bed. They said it came once at nine o clock and once at three, so the five year old thought he'd be safe creeping out at midnight, giving himself three hours until the child-eating-monster next made an appearance.

A little way down the long, simple but grand hallway, a door opened, a sliver of yellow artificial light cascading across the floor. The boy took a sharp intake of breath and held it so that the adults coming out of the room couldn't hear his breathing. Edging his way around the door frame and into the room he had just passed by, the boy crawled behind a nearby screen and prayed that nobody would find him there. He didn't want to be told off like his best friend had, and he _certainly_ didn't want to be eaten by some scary monster that had teeth specially made for grinding children's bones!

The adults that had been in the room a little further on were now making their way towards the room that the anxious child was sitting in. He could hear their voices, there was a man and a woman, but he didn't recognise them. They were talking about some weird project that a lot of people had been talking about lately. They called it "_The Fate_." None of the little children knew what _The Fate_ was all about, but _all_ the older kids said that it was where all the adults got together and sold the naughty children to dealers who would turn them into slaves! Of course, ever since he'd found that out, the young boy was extra nice to everyone and was always helping out with any chores that needed doing – Sometimes he even helped with preparation for _The Fate_! Surely he wouldn't be sold as a slave after being so good..?

Upon hearing the adults pass, the small boy wriggled out from his hiding place and gasped, quickly wriggling back in. The adults hadn't _passed_, they were standing in the door way! He brought his knees up to his chest, hugging them, and gazed at the end of the screen where he had crawled into the gap behind it. Watching. Waiting. What if he got caught? Would he be punished? His best friend had been punished… He hadn't seen him for two days afterwards. Maybe they would do it to him too! Although, what 'it' was, the boy didn't really know.

The five year old's eyes grew wide with sudden angst. He knew that feeling. It was really dusty behind that old screen and he _really_ needed to –

"Ah-_choo_!" He squeaked before he could help himself, hastily covering his nose and mouth with a hand as if it might stop the adults from hearing the sneeze. Less than three seconds later, the oil lamp had been lit in the room. He had been found out! He was going to be punished!

"Who's in here?" The woman's voice asked quietly, not wanting to awake anybody else in the large building. The child noted that her voice was slightly shaky too… Maybe she thought he was a burglar! As an idea formed itself in his head, he searched around the floor with his eyes for something small and hard. A candle? No, too big. A little porcelain pot? No, too delicate. A piece of coal? No, too smudgy.

His hair band?

That would do. Reaching behind him as quietly and carefully as he could, the small boy tugged at the band keeping his hair back, an item he was practically _forced_ to wear. Crawling out from behind the screen just enough to get a good aim, the child placed the band over the top of his index finger, stretching it out using a finger from his other hand. Aimed at a screen the other side of the room, the boy knew that it would make a good enough noise to distract the adults so that he could escape.

Pulling the band back as far as it would go and closing one eye with his tongue sticking out in concentration, the child let go of it, eyes dazzling with mischievous pride as his plan worked out just how he'd hoped. The band flew through the air and made a light thudding noise as it made contact with the intended screen. Both adults turned and began cautiously walking toward the sound. The small boy dived out silently from his hiding place and dashed straight from the room and straight down the long hall, his mid-length hair now messily flailing out behind him without it's band.

As soon as he had rounded the corner, a large set of doors were in front of him, the entrance to the grand building. This was something he hadn't really thought about – How the hell to get out! It was only natural that the place would be guarded since they certainly didn't want any strangers getting in.

How did the monster get in? The boy thought hard about that thought until it suddenly seemed obvious. The windows didn't have any glass in them! Although… They were _really_ small. No big child-eating-monster would be able to get in them, but more to the point, the boy would never be able to get out of them either, and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to get back in because the building was built off the ground with steps going up to it and so it was _much_ further to the ground than it would be from the inside. He slumped to the floor and crossed his legs, feeling a bit lost and disappointed. He'd really wanted to go outside and see the stars, just this once.

It was when something wet fell on his hand that he realised he was crying. He'd just have to go back to bed and dream about it all over again, because it was never going to happen in reality.

"Why are you crying?"

The boy looked up to find his best friend hand in hand with two more children, a girl one side and a boy the other. They were all looking down on him with confusion and sympathy, desperate to know what was wrong with their close companion. The girl, his best friend's younger sister, knelt down at his side and took hold of his hand.

"Don't cry Rei." She soothed, stroking his hair. She was only four, a year younger than the child who sat in the middle of the hallway, looking hopeless.

His best friend was a year older than him, while the other boy was the same age as he was. They were all the best of friends and they knew that nothing would ever come between them, Lee, the eldest child, had promised that.

"_Nothing will ever break our friendship ever!"_

And Rei believed him. They all believed him. "I was crying because I wanted to see the stars." The child spoke quietly, undoubtedly hurt at the fact that he was denied this simple pleasure. To the side of him, a green eyebrow cocked upward.

"Again?" The younger boy asked, to which Rei replied with a nod, soon followed by a loud sniff. "Come on then." And he made it sound so _easy_ that the boy was unsure as whether to follow or not. Still, he took hold of the outstretched hand of the eldest boy and pulled himself to his feet, taking hold of the girl's hand too. Together, the four began walking up the long corridor, back the way Rei had first come.

"Where are we going?" He whispered excitedly. Was he really going to see the stars? Could his friends show him where they were?

"To the top." Lee stated as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world. To the top of what, however, he didn't specify. Rei wondered if they were going to the top of the world or just to the top of the stairs. Half of him wanted it to be the world because he knew that he would be able to see so much from up there, but half of him only wanted it to be the stairs; he didn't want to stray too far from home just yet, plus he was starting to get very tired, it had been such an exciting night!

"Why were you up?" He questioned his best friend, though the answer actually came from the tiny green-haired boy, whose violet eyes suddenly shone with pure and utter enthusiasm.

"Lee and me heard a noise at nine o clock and we that it was the monster and we heard a door creaking and we knew it _had_ to be the monster!" He gushed, cheeks now bright red as he remembered how scared and joyous he had been at the time. "And so we all thought that we should try to find it and then tell it to go away so that it wouldn't eat children in the village any more!" He explained proudly, puffing his chest out. Rei gasped.

"But what if it found you and ate you too?" He asked in a hushed voice, unconsciously glancing around just in case. The younger boy shook his head quickly.

"There's three of us, and we knew that the monster wouldn't _dare_ to touch the Chief's grandson!" He paused for breath, pushing a lock of deep green hair from his wide eyes, grinning and showing off his small blunt fangs. "But what about you? You could have been eaten Rei!" He shivered at the thought of one of his best friends being eaten by a huge scary monster and clung onto Lee tighter.

"Don't worry Kevin." Lee spoke softly, he was always the one to calm everyone down. After all, he _was_ the oldest of them and he always knew just what to say. Rei thought he was so wise and he wanted to be just like Lee in that way. They all watched as the boy pulled a small round thing from his pocket. The others broke out into a grin.

"Galeon!" Rei exclaimed happily. He knew that Lee wouldn't forget something like that, whereas he had left his own beyblade in his bedroom – He hadn't thought that his Driger blade could protect him, though at that time, Lee was a _much_ better blader than him anyway.

"Of course." Lee grinned. "No big bad monster is going to screw with _me_!"

Everyone gasped.

"Where did you learn that word Lee?" Rei asked, utterly mortified, though his astonishment was completely forgotten when they came to the foot of a large, dark staircase. They weren't… Going up… _There_, were they? It looked really scary. "What's up there?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"The stars." A small voice whispered through the darkness, causing all eyes to turn to the speaker, the four year old girl who was currently latched onto Rei's arm, Mariah, Lee's younger sister. Her amber eyes were shining with anticipation, but no more than Rei's were. He was ecstatic – And he hadn't even been up there yet.

Following their 'Lee-der', as they liked to call him, they began to climb the huge mountain of stairs. Rei counted them out loud as they went up, soon having the other three join in too. However, they had to stop counting when they got to fourteen because they couldn't think of the next number and they'd already missed eleven and twelve, saying one-teen and two-teen instead, plus saying three-teen rather than thirteen. Not even Lee could remember what came next, and he had a sneaky suspicion that it wasn't five-teen.

They clambered the rest of the way in silence, the only sound being childish huffs and puffs as their small legs and hands started to get tired, there really were a _lot_ of stairs. Rei could see the top now and he picked up his speed, cat-like agility helping him bounce up further and further, over taking Lee but soon falling back behind him, feeling much less secure without his friend in sight.

And then they were there and everything was worth while.

All the running around the house and trying not to be seen, all the drama of nearly being caught, all the worry about whether the monster was going to eat him, all the upset when he thought that he'd just have to go back and never ever see the stars! All the climbing. It was all worth it.

At the top of the stairs was a _huge_ window, depicting through it's pane, a very clear and starry night. Rei was breathless. He ran up to it and pressed his nose against the glass, laughing happily to himself. It was _beautiful_. The night sky was like a perfect picture that had been specially made to be the most amazing sight that could be imagined. The sky was a simple and gracious gradient of black, through navy blue, to purple and then a hint of pink tinged the horizon… And there were millions of stars. Billions of bright brilliant white speckles shimmering shamelessly in their scattered positions across the faded sky. It was breathtaking. It was a dream.

No, this was better than the dream. This was _wonderful_, Rei had never known the world held so much beauty. He stood staring for quite some time, positively beaming at Lee as the elder boy took hold of his best friend's hand, and they stood silently among the stars.

For a moment, just a mere split second, Rei felt as if they were shining for him, and if they weren't, the shooting star that zoomed in an arch in perfectly clear view above the entire village _definitely_ was. It reminded him that everything was good and that he was going to have a fun-filled life and meet new people and get far. The star was for him, him and his friends, the best friends he could ever dream of.

And tonight the dream was theirs, Rei thought as Lee's fingers gently entwined with his. For tonight, they were all going to share the stars.

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